I've always just nodded my head in agreement without any discourse but it's getting harder and harder to do. I wish I had the social skills to be able to smartly throw it back at them but I get too angry and just sit and seethe so a fight doesn't break out.
I'm trying to get a bit more clever these days and only throw in a couple shots over the bow when I know it's ripe. Usually they will take it back in stride and we will all wind up agreeing but I have to be very careful about the points I try to make.
Sometimes if you say the wrong thing it will set these people off like a time bomb and that's absolutely not what I'm going for.
People who are completely misinformed for their whole life are tough nuts to crack and it's better off just to leave it be and enjoy the other moments you might share.
In my case, they were either clients or prospective clients so I always had to suck it up. Nowadays I get to freewheel a bit but I never want to insult the other person directly.
The woman who cuts my hair goes to Florida every year for the winter. She has family there and hides out like a snowbird. We always had small talk about our experiences there and she used to tell me that I should move there full time because it was so awesome. I would always tell her it was a nice place to visit but only my Mom lived there and I wanted no part of it after we sold her condo.
Just a couple weeks ago I saw her here at a Memorial Day party and she told me Florida sucks and she's never going back and said that she should have listened to me.. I was like, I never told you any of those things, not once, ever.. I just said it was not worth it for me anymore. Somehow I got into her head and I'm not sure how.. I got a big hug and a free haircut a couple days later, but I still left a 20 on the table before I walked out with a huge smile on my face..
